UK Chancellor Philip Hammond has delivered the 2018 UK Budget, Britain’s final budget before its projected exit from the EU.
Introducing the 2018 UK Budget, the chancellor declared the era of austerity, which began in 2010, was “finally coming to an end” and announced a £20.5 billion cash injection for the NHS over the next five years, of which £2 billion has been earmarked for mental health treatment. The majority of other government departments will receive no funding boost, with some – as yet undetermined – facing real terms budget cuts.
Hammond stated the controversial universal credit scheme, which has left hundreds of claimants worse off, was “here to stay”. 84 per cent of the income tax cuts announced in the 2018 UK Budget will benefit the top 50 per cent of earners in the UK. Welfare cuts including a £1.5 billion benefit freeze will primarily impact low- and middle-income families with children.
The 2018 UK Budget included a £30 billion package to improve road conditions, repairing motorways and potholes; and a £400 million one-off bonus for schools to help them buy what Hammond called “little extras” such as textbooks and desks. Education professionals were critical both of the amount pledged – which breaks down to £10,000 per primary school and £50,000 per secondary school, less than one per cent of the average school’s annual budget – and the phrase “little extras”, which was viewed as patronising and tone deaf. Education funding has been cut by £2 billion since 2015.
The £400 million bonus has been allocated in 2018 UK Budget accounts as “capital spending”, meaning it can only be spent on “maintenance and purchasing” equipment. This in turn means that many of the “little extras” schools have had to crowdfund in order to buy, such as pencils and paper, are excluded from the list of permissible purchases.
As the chancellor concluded the 2018 UK Budget statement, a protest began in the public gallery, led by the campaigning group Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI). The group campaigns for redress for women born in the 1950s who were hit hard and suddenly by increases in the state pension age, meaning many had to abruptly change their retirement plans or find alternative employment. In contravention of House of Commons etiquette, opposition MPs applauded the protesters.
Hammond admitted that at this stage the 2018 UK Budget is a placeholder; and that in the increasingly likely event of a no deal Brexit a new budget will have to be written.
